Phil Gramm on "bigotry against the successful"

[WillyT]

[libodem]

1. You're damn right

Ya stingy bastards.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. What an ass.

He said this:

Phil Gramm, a former three-term Republican senator from Texas who once ran the Senate Banking Committee, told the House Financial Services Committee yesterday that “it was an outrage” that his friend Edward Whitacre, the CEO of AT&T, only got “$75 million” when he retired in 2007.

“If there’s ever been an exploited worker” it was Whitacre, said Gramm, testifying on the fifth anniversary of passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. Gramm appeared genuinely aggrieved by Whitacre’s shabby treatment and literally pounded the table while speaking.

Whitacre actually received a retirement package totaling $158 million.

Gramm attributed public anger at CEOs like Whitacre to “the one form of bigotry that is still allowed in America,” which is “bigotry against the successful.”

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/07/29/former-gop-sen-phil-gramm-outrage-att-ceo-got/

[rurallib]

12. how did carlin put it "They want it all!"

[Uncle Joe]

13. I don't know how anyone can make ends meet with just 75 million or

even 158 million, a dollar doesn't go as far as it used to, poor bastards!

[hifiguy]

3. They are getting on their knees and

BEGGING for the tumbrels and guillotines at this point, aren't they?

Frankly, I think it would be rather rude to refuse them.

[longship]

9. Frankly, your response is perfect. nt

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. And when King Louis XIV took a dump in public at Versailles

his court entourage had to applaud and praise it or else. In these days when the 1% keeps getting richer and keeps separating itself from the rest in terms of wealth, you not only can't complain about that but you have to kiss their ass.

[olddots]

6. No comment I would want printed

[longship]

7. Not that meely-mouthed idiot again!

I thought he went away, or something.

[flobee1]

8. In their brain

Greed equals success.
and if they feel discriminated against, good!
theres a lot more of that coming down the road and worse

[Johonny]

10. When they fail its our fault, when they succeed it is due to them

either way they still make 4000 times what the average employee makes. Let's start there Phil and then comment on that idea. I'd call him a name, but honestly he doesn't give a * about 99.9% of Americans so why would he care.

[3catwoman3]

11. Oh, wah, wah, wah.

[madinmaryland]

14. Ok, Phil. Bigotry against Bigots does not work. So go fuck yourself, Phil.

[Octafish]

15. Guy drove the getaway car for Banksters in 2008. Series.

His wife Wendy Gramm also did wonders tying ENRON to BCCI, Phil Gramm.

The modern day Meyer Lansky of the War Party, Phil Gramm.

Phil Gramm's now vice chairman of Swiss bank UBS where he works in "Wealth Management" with Bill Clinton, Phil Gramm.

How were they to know that repealing Glass-Steagall would lead to trillions in losses for the US taxpayer? That Phil Gramm.

Now that Phil Gramm is into "Wealth Management" with ex-presidents. That Bill Clinton. That George Bush.

[Fritz Walter]

16. THIS is why Bernie Sanders is getting support!

Americans are fed up with this sense of entitlement by the 1%.

And with the Kabuki theater performed by their sycophants in Congress, on K Street, and especially on Wall Street.


Jim Hightower hit the nail on the head with his recent post on BillMoyers.com and OtherWords.org:

Gramm practically wept as he related the sad story of Whiteacre’s heartache. The guy was actually underpaid, wailed Gramm: “If there’s ever been an exploited worker, he was exploited. It was an outrage!” This was odd, since the former senator had never previously expressed the slightest concern about exploited workers.